All About Pocket Knives

When was the last Camillus wooden handle with the TL-29 stamp made? Does having TL-29 on the handle make it a military issue? This one has a stamp that indicates it was made in the '60-'76 era, regular block letters with long line under CAMILLUS. Picture showing tang not too clear, was made to show etch on screwdriver blade. Actually the stamp is rather "light" compared to most of my Camillus knives. Treefarmer

........you got me on this one, t.f.!!...too bad tj murphy is not still around!!....i'll bet he could answer this one!!....... ......................

treefarmer wrote:When was the last Camillus wooden handle with the TL-29 stamp made? Does having TL-29 on the handle make it a military issue? This one has a stamp that indicates it was made in the '60-'76 era, regular block letters with long line under CAMILLUS. Picture showing tang not too clear, was made to show etch on screwdriver blade. Actually the stamp is rather "light" compared to most of my Camillus knives.024.JPG032.JPG
Treefarmer

According to my limited amount of catalog pages. Camillus still used Rosewood handles in 1957. In the 1959/1960 catalog pages, they used "brown phenolic plastic." Don't know about the military part of your question.

Good question, I just found this one today. Like posted above this one appears to be from the 60's-70's based on my limited knowledge, but I am not real sure of that. Snagged at a local thrift store for under $10.

2 treefarmer
In your knife, I see signs of two different time periods.
A wooden handle with a dyed TL-29 stamp speaks of the post-war period, but only until 1950-51, when, according to changes in the military specification, the tree was replaced with plastic.
The blade tang stamp indicates the period of the 60s - 70s.
Thus, it is the re-bladed TL-29 from 1945-51, or this is did using dead inventory ("Camillus never threw anything away")
All this is IMHO.

Thank you, Vit_213 for your observation.
What you mentioned about "Camillus never threw anything away" might be the answer. The wooden handle with the TL-29 handle stamp and the 60-67 tang stamp caused me to ask the question. Another thing, when did Camillus move the location of the bail/shackle to the rear of the handle? The TL-29 Baykeeper posted with the plastic handles, the bail/shackle setting forward on the handle rather than on the rear pins. I have one Camillus with wooden handles that has the number 27 on the pile side of the blade, a short line stamp, 1946-1950. Very confusing to have so many small variations on the same pattern.
Treefarmer

treefarmer wrote:Another thing, when did Camillus move the location of the bail/shackle to the rear of the handle?

In the 80s

Part of my TL-29 collection (I have 2 more versions that are not in this photo)